Jack Robinson, author of Days and Nights in W12 (CBe), has also written as Jennie Walker (24 for 3, McKitterick Prize, Bloomsbury) and Charles Boyle (ex-Faber poet, short stories from Salt).

Jack Robinson An Overcoat: Scenes from the Afterlife of H.B.

Longlisted for 2017 Republic of Consciousness Prize

‘I read it with an idiot grin, delighted by every sentence, each of which has been constructed with remarkable care, not just for its own sound and plausibility, but to reflect the daily realities of life ... I can’t think of a wittier, more engaging, stylistically audacious, attentive and generous writer working in the English language right now.’ – Nicholas Lezard, Guardian (full review here)

‘An Overcoat is brilliant, absorbing, strange, and highly recommended.’ – The Brooknerian‘... its delightful hop, skip and a jump along that unstable line that separates fact from fiction ... Neither-one-thing-nor-the-other of the year.’ – Jonathan Gibbs, Books of the Year 2017

‘An exquisite collection of red herrings caught in a very loosely knotted net by a well-known escapologist. They are prompted by reflections on the life and afterlives of Henri Beyle, aka Stendhal ...’ – John Sandoe Books

‘This is a very European book and for that alone it ought to be banned’ – Marius KociejowskiIn love, thwarted, ridiculous – the wind has changed direction and he is stuck here for ever.

In June 1819 Henri Beyle (aka Stendhal) is rejected by thewoman he loves. But quitting is not an option, and Beylefinds himself stranded in an afterlife populated by tourists,shoplifters, characters in novels he hasn’t yet written andimpostors who have stolen his pseudonyms.

Footnoting a host of other writers, An Overcoat is anobsessional play upon the life and work of one of thefounders of the modern novel.

In 2017 CBe publishes An Overcoat (April) and (in June) Robinson – a diptych – by Jack Robinson (a pen-name of Charles Boyle, editor of CBe). Also by Jack Robinson:

Days and Nights in W12‘Ingeniously observed, elliptical and funny, it’s like the best moments in a novel, minus the padding.’ – Geoff Dyer

by the same author‘This book is a kind of portrait of the contemporary committed reader: oh, you think, reading it, is that what I’m like?’– Jonathan Gibbs